


Grimm Nightmares

by SylverFletcher



Category: RWBY
Genre: Blood and Gore, Coma nightmares, Gen, Horror, grimdark characters, what even do i tag this as
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-12-13
Updated: 2015-04-01
Packaged: 2018-03-01 05:53:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 6,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2762069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SylverFletcher/pseuds/SylverFletcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When an accident on the battlefield causes Ruby to be stung by a Death Stalker, she falls comatose and finds herself in a seemingly inescapable nightmare realm. Now, she has to find her way out with the help of the one person she'd least expect, avoid the monsters that look like her friends, and make sure no one else dies in the process. (contains Ruby/Roman friendship)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer/AN: This story contains graphic horror, blood, and some gore. I don't own Rwby or its characters, or the indie horror game this story's setting is based off of, Dungeon Nightmares. All rights go to the respective owners, I just wrote the story.  
> (this is reposted from my FFN account)

"Honestly, what _are_ you doing?"

The cute little rabbit's ears perked up at the sudden voice, and it quickly dashed away from the cloaked scythe wielder in panic as her pale teammate stepped into the clearing, a scowl on her face.

"Aww, you scared him away, Weiss." Ruby looked off into the forest after the fuzzy creature. "He was nibbling my finger."

"We're not here to get distracted by cute little fuzzy animals, you dolt!" Came Weiss's sharp reprimand.

"But... But... Cute bunny..." Ruby looked up at her from where she was sitting on her knees in the soft grass, puppy face in full effect. Weiss felt her face twitch in annoyance.

"That look may work on Yang, but it won't work on me! Get up!"

"Okay..." The younger girl mumbled, still attempting to pull off the pitiful look. Weiss ignored it.

"Come on, we're out here to kill Grimm, not play with bunnies." She snapped again, before continuing in a softer tone, "Think of it this way, if we don't kill the Grimm, those little bunnies will become their lunch."

There was a slight glint in Ruby's silver gaze as she stared up at her teammate. "You just want to beat the other teams."

"That too." Weiss agreed, holding out her hand. "Now can we please go find our other teammates?"

"Yeah." Ruby took the offered hand, and Weiss pulled her to her feet. Dusting herself off a little, she asked, "Do you know where they went?"

"I'm sure they went this way." Weiss turned to face south, and Ruby had a feeling that was just the first direction she thought of.

"You're going to get us lost again, aren't you?"

Ruby was sure the older girl made an offended sound, but if she did, it was drowned out by the much louder sound of multiple explosions going off. The team leader smirked and pointed in that direction while keeping her stare on Weiss. "Hey look, I found my sister."

"Oh, just shut up and come on." The white haired girl snapped, proceeding to drag Ruby into the forest toward the sound of Yang beating something senseless.

It only took a couple of minutes for them to come upon another clearing, and Weiss pulled Ruby behind a tree instead of walking out into the open, peering out at the current battle that was taking place. "Why are we-"

"Shh." Weiss hushed her, her tone quiet as she continued. "Look. How did they manage to attract _that_ many Grimm?! I bet there are a ton of Nevermore in the air, too."

"Weiss, Yang and Blake need us." Ruby pointed out, watching as her sister relentlessly punched an Ursa before jumping toward a Beowulf that was heading for Blake, who was on the ground. "I think Blake is hurt."

"It won't do them any good if we get caught up in the middle of it too, we need to think of a- Hey! Where are you going? RUBY ROSE GET BACK HERE!"

Ruby smirked, ignoring the older girl, before pulling Crescent Rose from its sheath on her belt and extending it into scythe form as she ran. She spun it around and fired a couple of rifle shots into the ground to launch herself into the air, and spun it again to slice the blade through the neck of another Ursa as she came down.

"Hey Blake, need some help?" She smirked, the heavy scythe resting on her shoulder for a moment as she turned to check on the immobile Faunus.

"Ruby, you need to get out of here. Yang got hit with something that's sent her berserker mode out of whack." Blake's amber eyes were wide with panic as she stared up at her team leader, silently urging the younger girl to leave before things got out of hand.

"She's my sister Blake, I'm sure it'll be okay. I don't want her to get hurt trying to fight all of these guys on her own." Ruby gestured to the Grimm heading for them. "Oh, looks like I can't talk anymore, bye!"

She was gone in a poof of rose petals, appearing further away to kill a pack of Beowulves. Blake stared after her with a worried expression, partially aware of the raging blond just a few yards away.

Ruby smirked to herself when she managed to defeat the entire pack in about thirty seconds, that was probably a new record for her. Actually, keeping score would be really useful if she ever had to remind Weiss that she was perfectly capable on the battlefield, maybe not in the classroom but she was great at fighting, which it seemed the heiress occasionally forgot. Speaking of her partner, she glanced back to see that Weiss had run over to join Blake, and the team leader found herself nodding in appreciation of the fact she seemed to be doing her best to take care of the Faunus' wounds.

The momentary distraction caused her to very nearly get hit by a barrage of Nevermore feathers, but she was somehow lucky enough for them to all land around her instead, and she glanced down for a split second to make sure her cloak wasn't caught this time.

Satisfied that she was still able to move freely, Ruby readjusted her grip on her beloved scythe and jumped out from behind the feathers. There was another Beowulf on the other side, and she easily sliced it in half and was about to head for the next one when a Death Stalker forced its way out of the forest nearby.

"Uh, guys, I might need some help with this one." She called, eying it warily as she remembered that it took the combined efforts of team JNPR to kill the last one. Also, this one was bigger.

"Ruby, you need to retreat. Blake can't even walk." She heard Weiss shout back, and she turned around to look at her partner. The heiress was standing with her hands on her hips, and Ruby couldn't help but think that what Weiss _really_ wanted to say was 'get back here or be in trouble for the rest of eternity'.

She was about to answer when she spotted Yang running toward her, and instead turned her attention to her sister. "Hey Yang, just in time! Think you can help me with this thing?" She asked, casually pointing a finger at the giant scorpion still approaching from behind her. The blond didn't answer, however, and Ruby narrowed her eyes in confusion as she continued running instead.

Now the team leader was starting to feel a little worried, remembering Blake's warning from earlier. But Yang wouldn't hurt her, would she? "Yang? Are you okay?" Something felt very bad about this situation, and with a possibly out of control berserker in front of her and a very dangerous monster behind her, she could understand why.

"Ruby! What are you doing? RUN!"

Her partner's shout did no good. The team leader was rooted in place, unable to do anything but stare into the fiery red eyes of her sister as she continued to approach, and still being vaguely aware of the scorpion behind her. "...Yang?"

That one, barely audible word was the last sound she made before she felt the impact of one of Yang's fearsome gauntlets. As she flew backwards, she had to admit that Yang packed a hell of a punch, and decided she had a newfound sense of respect for anyone she'd seen her sister beat senseless and still be able to run away.

And then she was impaled on the Death Stalker's stinger, barely aware of her team's horrified screams of her name as she felt her own blood run down her skin, before everything went dark.


	2. Chapter 2

Ruby slowly felt herself being dragged back into consciousness, and with a groan, she sat up and opened her eyes. She expected to see the ceiling of her room at Beacon, or at least the school's infirmary, but this was neither. She was in a dark, brick room that looked very similar to a cellar or dungeon of sorts. There were old, wooden doors on either side of her, and a shelf with some candles on it behind her.

She stood up carefully, having an uneasy feeling about this place, and stared toward the far wall that she couldn't see. She really, really hoped there wasn't anything there. Shaking her head slightly, which immediately earned her a splitting headache, she grabbed and lit a candle.

The far side of the room was luckily empty, though she wasn't sure what she expected to see instead. Making her way toward one of the doors, the one on her right, she wondered how she'd gotten here. The last thing she remembered was getting hit by Yang and then the Death Stalker, so she should be in Beacon's infirmary, right?

With a gasp, she momentarily forgot about the door and placed her free hand over her stomach instead, searching for that wound, the one that should be there. She remembered being impaled, remembered feeling the blood drip from it, but there was nothing there now. As far as she could feel, her torso was injury free, and her clothes were also in perfect condition, as well as clean.

_Am I dreaming?_

There was no way she wasn't injured, she remembered it happening. This _had_ to be a dream, there was no way she'd be in some random dungeon without injuries that she _knew_ she had, if this were reality. But this apparent dream seemed far too real, from the dusty, underground smell, to the eerie feeling that there was something else in here with her. The same feeling when there were Grimm nearby, the feeling that you weren't alone and there was danger. She'd had nightmares before, true, but she'd never had one in which she sat and debated whether or not said nightmare was real or not. The burning candle in her hand also disagreed with the thought of this being just a dream, since it chose that moment to burn her hand with melted wax.

She hissed in pain at the burn, but managed to not drop the candle. Something told her that dropping the candle would be a very, very bad idea. _Wait, isn't pain supposed to wake you up? That's why people do the 'pinch me in case I'm dreaming' thing, right?_

Finally, she shoved the old door open, with obvious effort. Which said a lot for how heavy the door was, considering the weapon she carried every minute of every day. _Oh god, I don't have Crescent Rose with me._ That thought alone made this entire situation that much scarier, and she shivered as she stared down the hall, which was obscured by both darkness and a heavy layer of fog or dust that was in the air.

_I really hope this is just a dream._


	3. Chapter 3

The young team leader also realized she didn't have her cloak, which didn't help her nerves at all. Being without her beloved scythe was one thing, being without her cloak was another, but being without both of them made her uncharacteristically skittish.

The eerie feeling that she wasn't alone only grew stronger as she walked down the dark hall, the candle in her hand doing little to light her way. Hot wax was still dripping down her fingers, but she barely noticed it as she strained her ears, trying to hear something that could maybe tell her what was lurking in the darkness and out of her sight. The dungeon appeared to be some sort of maze, judging by the many different rooms and halls branching off from the one she was in.

Pushing open another heavy, old door, she walked a little ways into the room behind it as she held the burning candle high to illuminate it as best she could. There were a few more shelves in this room, mostly containing random boxes and junk, but on one she could just see the light from her candle glinting off of a piece of red metal. Curious, she made her way over to the shelf and picked up the object. Once it was in her hand, she realized it was her rose symbol, and a quick look at her belt told her it was the one that was normally supposed to be there.

_Why is this in here?_ She kept her confused gaze on it for a few more seconds, before finally shrugging and putting it back in place on her belt, where it was supposed to be. Even though she hadn't realized it was missing before, she felt a little more complete with her symbol back.

Ruby turned around to leave the room, and this time she _did_ drop her candle. Well, would have, if it wasn't stuck to her hand. In one of the corners by the door stood her icy partner, still as a statue.

"Weiss?"

Her voice sounded much louder than she would have preferred, and she jumped as it echoed off the walls slightly. _I hope that doesn't attract something I don't want to run into._ Ignoring that thought for a moment, she crept closer to Weiss, feeling her hair start to stand on end as she did. Something told her that this was not her partner.

And she had to agree.

When she had moved close enough for the candle to illuminate the heiress properly, Ruby gasped and quickly covered her mouth with her free hand while her eyes widened in absolute horror. It looked exactly like Weiss, it could have even been an incredibly realistic statue, except for the eyes. She expected to see the icy blues that she knew so well, or at least closed ones, but this thing didn't have eyes at all. Just empty, black sockets, similar to a skeleton except for the blood dripping out like tears.

Ruby shuddered as she backed away, throwing the Weiss thing back into shadow. She stood still for a moment, telling herself over and over in her head that this was just a dream, and back in reality, Weiss was perfectly fine, not standing like a statue in a dungeon somewhere without eyes. That made her feel a little better, and she turned and started to walk out of the room, refusing to look at the thing in the corner.

Just as she reached the door, she had that feeling again. The feeling that she wasn't alone, that there was danger nearby, and with a prickling feeling, she turned back around to face the room.

The eyeless Weiss was standing directly in front of her, their faces only inches apart, and it had its fingers stretched out toward her like claws. It was completely still again, like a statue, as if it had never moved. All of these details became apparent to her in the split second that she stared at it, before screaming and dashing out of the room as fast as she could.

Normally, Ruby was brave. She took everything head on and never backed down from a fight, unless her team convinced her it was the better option. But here, she was without her scythe, without her team and friends, and was instead in an eerie dungeon alone with a creepy Weiss statue that only moved when she wasn't looking at it. Even that wouldn't be so hard to handle if the damn thing had eyes, but the empty, bleeding sockets freaked her out to no end, and her courage had completely deserted her the moment she saw them right in front of her face.

She ran down the hall recklessly for a few minutes, forgetting to try and be at least slightly cautious of how much noise she made. Though, after that scream, whatever else was down here probably already knew about her anyway. Finally she came to a stop and leaned against the wall, panting as she tried to regain her breath. Her candle had blown out in the mad dash away from the Weiss thing, and now the darkness around her felt even more foreboding than before.

There wasn't much of a candle left now, at least. It was barely more than a stub and would only have lasted a few more minutes anyway, so she didn't mind losing it so much, and carefully peeled it and the wax that had dripped over her fingers off of her hand, before dropping it to the floor.

Steeling herself against the fact that she had to continue wandering around in darkness without any sort of light at all, she slowly walked out into the next room. She could already tell it was a very large room, and wondered what may be hiding for her just out of sight in here.

However, a minute or two of searching around showed this room was actually empty, aside from some chairs or boxes here and there. Deciding to take advantage of the momentary safety to rest, she leaned against a wall again before sliding down it and onto the floor.

Ruby stared into the darkness for a few minutes, then down at the rose symbol on her belt for a few more. Eventually, her brows knitted together slightly in confusion as she remembered it was supposed to be silver. She hadn't realized it at first, but the one she usually wore was silver, whereas this one was red like Crescent Rose. _Must be because this is a dream. I mean, they're not always completely accurate to reality and we don't always realize it's different until we wake up, right?_ Then her expression darkened slightly as she thought about that thing that looked like Weiss. _This is one hell of a nightmare if I'm seeing stuff like that. Normally, the only times my nightmares are about Weiss is when I know she's going to yell at me for something. Actually, come to think of it, I've never had a nightmare like this before._

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sound of something metal scraping against stone, like a heavy blade being dragged on the ground. She'd only ever heard sounds like that in horror movies before, where the killer dragged their weapon against stone or concrete in order to scare people. And while she always thought it was kind of pointless before, she had to admit that in a real situation, it was terrifying.

The sound came closer as whoever was dragging the weapon came into the room, making Ruby cautiously move behind a stack of boxes in case they could see in the dark. She peered over the edge of her cover as the sound started to pass right by, trying to get a glimpse of what it was, though all she could see was a vague shape of something large and red being dragged behind a dark figure with long hair.

And then the room was empty again, and Ruby made it a point to not go down the hall where the sound had faded off in. Instead, she forced herself to her feet and went down the hall that the figure had originally come from, since that was the only place she for sure wouldn't encounter it for awhile.

Almost immediately, there was a door on the left side of the hall, and she chose to investigate the room behind it. When she managed to force the old door open, the first thing she noticed was how light it was inside. The light was coming from a bunch of wall torches, making it the only room so far that was actually lit up, and in the center of the room was a ladder leading up to the next level of the dungeon.

Ruby took a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare herself for what she may face next, and climbed the ladder.


	4. Chapter 4

She pulled herself up onto the floor of the next level, and the hole in the bricks where she had passed through vanished as soon as she turned away, blocking her from going back even if she wanted to. Ruby didn't notice, though, instead moving over to the shelves lined up against one wall and looking for anything useful.

There were a couple of candles, which she took gladly before lighting one, and while she was happy to have a source of light again, she almost wished she couldn't see the walls. Below, the walls had been just plain old stone, but up here, they were splattered with blood on almost every visible surface. With a shudder, she turned toward the door and attempted to ignore the red all around her.

The door swung open on its own, hitting the wall with a loud bang, and she jumped. There was no one on the other side, even though she was partially expecting to see another creepy Weiss standing there. Ruby shook her head to clear it, and cautiously stepped out into the hall, being reminded again of how little help the candle was. The dust in the air was thick enough that the flame's light just sort of bounced off, instead of lighting the way ahead, so she could hardly see more than two or three feet ahead of her. Still, having it there gave her some sense of contentment, even if it didn't realistically help much.

This hallway was shorter than most of the others, so she came upon the next room right away. There was a pillar in the middle of the floor, blocking her view of the far wall, which bothered her slightly. Other than that, it felt relatively safe, and she wandered further in to explore.

Of course, as soon as she passed through the doorway, she noticed a dark figure standing to her right. Spinning around to see what it was, she immediately regretted that decision as the candle light illuminated the figure and showed her that it was Blake. Or, it looked like Blake, but its eyes looked exactly like Weiss's had. For a moment she wondered what to do with it, since Weiss had moved as soon as she stopped looking at it, but she didn't get to think about it long before Blake made the decision for her. Ruby gasped and backed away as its head jerked back and the rest of its body seized, and then crumpled to the ground at her feet. She forced herself not to scream again when she noticed its hand had landed on her boot, as if it had been reaching for her, and she continued to back away instead.

_That is not Blake. It looks like Blake, but it's not her. This is a horrible nightmare that's just trying to scare me by showing me my friends like this, but they're fine. If I'm in the infirmary in reality, I bet Blake is sitting beside my bed reading a book right now, perfectly normal and safe._ Ruby reassured herself over and over as she slowly moved to the side of the room she hadn't been able to see before, ignoring the crumpled Blake.

There was a small, wooden chest on the floor here, and she knelt down to open it. Inside she found another candle, which made her realize that she hadn't even noticed the dripping wax from the one currently burning in her hand this time, despite how it had burned her skin before. Maybe this one was burning too and she just didn't feel it this time, though whether that was from her fear or something else she didn't know. She shoved the thoughts of the candle away as she noticed the light glinting off of something in the bottom of the chest, similarly to how her rose symbol had, and she reached in to pick it up as well.

When she held it under the light, it took her a moment to recognize the forest green gears symbol as Ozpin's. When she did realize what it was, Ruby blinked in confusion. _Why is his symbol here too? Is there some sort of pattern to this?_ Whatever the reason for them being here, she had a feeling their symbols were incredibly important right now, and placed Ozpin's gears next to her own rose on her belt.

She closed the chest and fought to stand up again, her legs protesting even though she hadn't done anything yet to make them tired. For a moment she wondered why, but that thought vanished as soon as she spotted a dark figure standing in the doorway beside the chest, and stood bolt upright before staring at the figure, startled. Now at eye level, her candle was close enough to just barely light up a green coat and black hair, and it reflected ever so slightly off of a set of sad, magenta eyes.

Though she felt no danger, Ruby continued to be frozen in place as she stared at Ren. He wasn't at all creepy like the other two had been, or threatening like Weiss, but there was something about him that was _wrong._

Then, just as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone. She blinked for a moment and looked around, but he was nowhere to be seen, as if he had vanished into thin air. Glancing back at where he had been standing, she thought about him and the other things she'd seen down here. Weiss had been first, with its creepy eyes and what Ruby had felt was an intent to hurt her, then the dark figure with the scraping noise that she also had a feeling would want to hurt her if it saw her. Then Blake, which hadn't seemed dangerous but still creepy, and now Ren, who had just looked sad. _If I've seen those three, does that mean I'm going to see monsters that look like Yang and the rest of team JNPR too?_ She dreaded the thought of running into Yang, if the rest of her team had looked like they did, she absolutely did not want to know what this place would do to her sister.

She shook her head. _No, not my sister, the image OF my sister. These things aren't my real friends, they're just part of this nightmare. No matter how much they look like them, I can't let this place fool me into thinking the monsters are my friends._ Still, her mind drifted back to the look on Ren's face, the sad expression had seemed incredibly foreboding. No matter how she looked at it, seeing him gave her the feeling that she was about to see something very, very bad. Either that, or things in general were about to get a lot worse.

Finally, she walked through the doorway Ren had been standing in, continuing on into the next room.


	5. Chapter 5

The room behind Ren had been empty, and it only took a few minutes of surprisingly scare-free wandering to find the next ladder room, and now Ruby found herself on the third level of the dungeon. The walls were back to being plain stone again, though somehow that didn't give her any comfort.

She was about to leave the small room she was in when she heard a faint growling sound coming from the other side of the door, but before she could decide whether to hide or not, the door slowly creaked open of its own accord. Peering out into the hallway, even with her limited range of sight she could still tell there was no one there.

As she quietly crept out of the room and down the hall, Ruby subconsciously reached down and patted the symbols on her belt to make sure she still had them. Reassured by the presence of the red rose and green gears, she focused on finding her way through the maze-like dungeon.

Nothing happened for a few minutes, and she was starting to feel less crushingly afraid, instead being lulled into a false sense of safety from the lack of monsters. That feeling instantly went away when she heard a grating noise at the end of the hall, the same one that the dark figure had made as it dragged some sort of blade around. And the sound was coming her way.

She quietly backed up in the opposite direction, looking for a room she could hide in until the monster passed at least, but keeping her eyes ahead in case the monster sped up. Realizing too late she should probably blow out her candle to keep from being seen, the monster spotted her and a loud, enraged scream came from it as it started chasing after her. There was a loud scratching noise like nails on a chalkboard as the blade was forced over the stone floor rougher than before, and the sound made Ruby's ears ring as she sprinted away.

The ringing in her ears got louder and more painful with each step, and suddenly she found herself collapsing with her sight fading to utter blackness. She hadn't fainted or passed out, since she could still think clearly, but she couldn't see or hear anything and her body wouldn't obey her commands to get up and move. Panic started to set in as she realized the monster would still be coming after her, even if she couldn't hear it anymore, and she was afraid of finding out what would happen if she died here.

Finally, her senses snapped back, similarly to being woken up abruptly, and she found herself staring at a pair of light brown boots covered in blood splatters. She slowly moved her gaze upward, chills going down her spine the more she saw of the figure. The brown clothes and long, messy blonde hair, albeit covered in blood, could belong to none other than her sister.

Yang's red eyes stared blankly ahead of her, and Ruby realized she must not have noticed her on the floor, thus why the girl was still alive and hadn't been stabbed by that noisy blade yet.

 _Wait, Yang doesn't carry a bladed weapon. What is she dragging along that's making that sound?_ Ruby's stare trailed down to Yang's right hand and the red handle that was held tightly in it, then down to the black blade embedded in the ground. Ruby felt like she'd seen that scythe somewhere before, but in its uncared for and incredibly beaten up condition it was barely recognizable. Then it hit her.

_That's Crescent Rose._

Her eyes widened when she realized that was her beloved weapon, and the sorry state it was in made her want to scream. She managed to not do that, but the overall shock from seeing a blood covered Yang with an equally bloody and unrepaired Crescent Rose caused her to give a tiny squeak. Then the red eyes met hers and she heard the enraged scream again as Yang realized she was there.

Ruby rolled to the side and the scythe was swung overhead, stabbing into the floor where she'd been laying moments before. Taking the momentary opening as Yang fought to pull the scythe free, Ruby scrambled to her feet and dashed down the hall where Yang had come from.

The grating sound started up again as Yang took chase, and the noise made Ruby cringe as she imagined her poor scythe going through that kind of abuse. She had to escape, though, and forced thoughts of her weapon out of her mind as she ducked into another room and quietly closed the door behind her. She could hear Yang go past the door a minute later, continuing off down the hall, and she allowed herself to breathe properly again.

She shivered when she noticed the eyeless Blake staring at her from the other side of the room. As much as she didn't want to go near it, she realized she needed the candles on the shelf behind Blake since hers had gone out and rolled away when she fell. Taking a deep breath, she inched closer to the creepy thing, attempting to sneak around it. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she noticed its head turning to continue blindly watching her as she passed beside it.

Reaching the shelf, she snagged a candle and backed away as she lit it. Once the light illuminated Blake, it collapsed just like the previous one had. Its empty eyes continued to stare up at her, and she quickly turned and left the room, unable to look at it any longer.

Back out in the hallway, she was unsure of where to go. Yang had gone off in the direction Ruby hadn't explored yet, and she didn't see any other doors or halls back in the direction she'd come from. She couldn't hear the grating noise anymore, so that probably meant Yang had wandered far enough away that Ruby wouldn't run into her again for awhile, but she also now knew that Yang sometimes just stopped and made no noise. The bloodied berserker could very well be waiting at the end of the hall, and Ruby just didn't know it.

Deciding to take her chances, since she really had no other choice, she quietly crept down in the direction Yang had gone. She was careful to keep an eye ahead, ready to extinguish the candle at first sight of the blonde. The hallway was apparently monster-free, though, at least so far. She came to a four way intersection of halls, and chose to go left at random.

She immediately regretted that decision when she spotted a dark figure somewhere down the hall, slowly stumbling toward her. The fact it was lacking the grating noise as it moved meant this wasn't Yang, and some sort of morbid curiosity kept her from running away, instead staying still and watching it move into the range of her candle's light.

Ruby audibly gasped as she recognized Jaune, covered in cuts and gashes all over, his hair stained red on one side and blood dripping steadily from his mouth. Ruby stared at him in utter horror, finding his injured state even more disturbing than Yang's psychotic one. He continued stumbling toward her, eyes looking blank and dead and she couldn't help but take a step backward. The way he stared right through her as if she wasn't there bothered her, and she wasn't sure if he was hostile or not.

Before she could really decide what to do, whether run from him or try to speak to him, he collapsed. Legs buckling beneath him, he fell forward and Ruby braced herself to catch him, but nothing landed in her arms. She blinked in confusion when she realized he'd just vanished entirely.

She shivered as another thought entered her mind. _What if Yang is the one that did that to him? No, this is just a dream. There's no realistic explanation for why the things in here look like they do, they just look like that to scare me. Right?_ Ruby shook her head, refusing to let herself dwell on it any longer.


	6. Chapter 6

Ruby sighed, leaning against a wall. Her feet hurt from all the walking, and she'd run out of candles, having to search in the dark instead. It must have been a couple of hours since she saw the vanishing Jaune, yet she still hadn't found the symbol on this floor. She had come across the ladder room lit by torches, but the ladder seemed to just disappear into the stone ceiling, there was no opening to the next floor. The girl had stayed in that room and pondered for a while over what may have been needed to open the way to the next level up, eventually realizing that it must be the symbols that were needed to progress. With that thought in mind, she'd set off again in search of another symbol, but hadn't had any luck so far in finding it.

She shivered, realizing just how cold it was down here without her cloak or even a candle, and being exhausted on top of that didn't help. _How long has it been since I woke up here? Am I ever going to get out?_ Violently shaking her head, Ruby banished that thought of doubt from her mind. She _was_ going to get out, she had to.

She refused to die in her own dream.

The girl was just starting to force herself back to her aching feet when she saw a light approaching. Though she probably should have felt wary of anything she saw in here, the light didn't seem to bother her. _Maybe because all of the monsters have hidden in the shadows so far?_ Whatever the reason, she curiously watched the light as it got closer, and soon realized it was a candle like the ones she'd been using.

There was a young man holding the candle into the air, seeming to carefully survey his surroundings. He had slightly long brown hair and was wearing a green scarf, and it took her a moment to notice the blonde girl trailing behind him, the candlelight glinting off the girl's glasses. Ruby blinked in disbelief when she realized they were both wearing Beacon Academy uniforms.

_"Glynda, is he still following us?"_

_"No, I don't think so. The scraping faded off in another direction awhile back."_

_"Good. Maybe now we can find that symbol in peace."_

_"Doubtful."_

_"Don't be so pessimistic, I'm sure we'll get all of those symbols and make it out of here."_

The blonde didn't reply, instead continuing to follow her teammate in silence. Ruby just stared at them as they passed by her without seeing her, even though she was in plain sight, and was almost about to try speaking to them when she realized she could see the stone brick of the opposite wall right through their slightly transparent bodies.

Ruby chose to follow the two students as they wandered down the hall. They looked achingly familiar, and it felt like she should have recognized them on sight, but her memory felt fuzzy and she couldn't quite put her finger on where she knew them from. She was also curious as to why they looked like ghosts, but she had a strange feeling they weren't actually dead. Was this just a memory left behind by someone else who had ended up here?

_Wait._ Ruby stiffened for a moment, though didn't stop following the students. _Where did that thought come from? This should just be a nightmare in my own head, but now that I think about it… Is this more than a nightmare, and other people have gotten stuck in here too?_ Before she could entertain the thought further, the two students stopped in front of a door. The girl was just reaching for the door as the two of them vanished, plunging the hall back into darkness at the absence of their phantom candle.

Realizing she herself had not actually explored this room before, Ruby pushed open the door and stepped inside. She could feel it was a relatively small room, and noticed the vague shape of a shelf in one corner and a chest in another, and chose to examine the shelf first. Just barely able to make out the shape of a couple of white candles in the darkness, she breathed a sigh of relief at the fact she'd be able to see again for awhile.

After she had one lit, Ruby turned to the chest. Inside, there was a flat metal object glinting from the light, and she couldn't hold back a triumphant smirk as she picked up Penny's green sword symbol.

* * *

There were a lot of things Ruby expected to see back at the ladder room, or even on the way to it. The sad Ren, statue Weiss, collapsing Blake… Especially the terrifying bloody Yang with Crescent Rose. Or maybe even to come back and find the room gone, or that the opening in the ceiling hadn't actually appeared like she'd expected.

The last thing she expected to find there was Roman Torchwick.

She had pushed open the door to the ladder room, and audibly gasped when she noticed the figure standing inside. Her gasp alerted him to her presence, making him turn to look at her, and a split second later she recognized him.

"Torchwick?!"

"Red?!"

"Wait, wait… You're real, right? You're not one of them?"

"Yes, I'm definitely one of the monsters like the bloody blonde with the scythe trying to murder everything." Came his reply, heavy with sarcasm.

"Yep, you're the real Torchwick…" She hissed under her breath.

Remembering they were enemies back in the real world, she looked down to see if he had his cane with him, which he did not. _I guess it makes sense that neither of us would have our weapons here. At least it means he can't try to pull some sort of sneak attack with explosives. Which isn't very sneaky, come to think of it…_

They stared distrustfully at each other for a few tense minutes, before Roman finally sighed and spoke again. "Look, I don't like you. You're an annoying brat that keeps messing up all of my plans, but seeing as how we're the only two beings in here that aren't trying to kill every living thing in sight, we should probably work together to find a way out of here."

Ruby narrowed her eyes. "You expect me to trust you?"

"No. I don't trust you, you don't trust me, sounds fair. We _can_ be civil for a few hours, though, and get out of this damn place and back to the real world."

"So you're asking we call a truce." Ruby stated. "A very temporary truce."

"Exactly."

"… Fine."


End file.
